However jobs will be created through a series of "high profile" enterprise and infrastructure development projects in the state's finance and telecommunications sectors which are set to start this year.

Salaries for IT permanent and contractor staff in Perth will fall for the first time in more than three years, handing the "balance of power" to employers, which the company blames on job cuts following the state's economic boom in 2007.

"Recruitment processes were lengthened as employers had a larger pool of available talent to choose from," the report states, adding Java and C# skills will be in demand in Perth this year.

The global financial crisis hit NSW hard during 2008, according to figures. Multinational companies sacked staff under orders from foreign headquarters and later hired contractors towards year's end to fill a staff shortfall. The state's major banks helped buck the trend in the state with huge core system upgrades that require skills in testing, business analysis, project management.

Contractors lost the bargaining power to push for fatter pay packets as contracts became scarce, the report claims, although "demand still outweighed supply" in testing, network and infrastructure, enterprise resource planning and solutions architecture. Business analysts, solutions architects and projects managers were snapped up by telcos continuing with huge transformation programmes.